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Excess body fat jeopardizes long-term health. Reducing excess body fat plays a vital role in maintaining good health and preventing disease. An estimated one in three Americans has some excess body fat; an estimated 20 percent are obese. The most common definition of obesity is more than 25 percent body fat for men and more than 32 percent for women. Excess body fat is linked to a variety of major physical threats such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. If you're obese, it takes more energy for you to breathe because your heart has to work harder to pump blood to the lungs and to the excess body fat. This increased workload can cause your heart to become enlarged and can result in high blood pressure and erratic heartbeats.Obese people also tend to have high cholesterol levels, making them more prone to arteriosclerosis, a narrowing of the arteries by deposits of plaque. This becomes life-threatening when blood vessels become so narrow or blocked that vital organs like the brain, heart or kidneys are deprived of blood. Studies have found a relationship between excess body fat and the incidence of cancer. By itself, body fat is thought to be a storage place. In women, excess body fat has been linked to a higher rate of breast and uterine cancer; in men, the threat comes from colon and prostate cancer. The good news is that reducing body fat reduces the risk of disease. Evidence shows that an active lifestyle and its help in reducing body fat is associated with a reduced risk for some types of cancers: prostate for men, breast and uterine cancers for women. A low-fat diet and a stress reduction program can even reverse the heart disease process. |
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